Gold supply(and price) manip(how does that word end?)
INDONESIA
Undercut
Illegal mining has reached unprecedented levels, harming legitimate companies and putting the economy and environment at risk
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By John McBeth/SOUTH KALIMANTAN and NORTH SULAWESI
Issue cover-dated July 13, 2000
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THEY COME EQUIPPED with scores of excavators and more than 500 trucks. Their backers have wealth and influence. They have been known to cajole and threaten. Over the past two years they have taken illegal mining to an unprecedented level, pillaging three million tonnes of coal alone from the two South Kalimantan concessions run by Australian mining company Broken Hill Proprietary.
BHP is the biggest but by no means only victim of a phenomenon that has swept Indonesia since the economy nose-dived three years ago. The government estimates there are 62,000 illegal miners across the country, twice the number working legally. Mines and Energy Minister Bambang Yudhoyono told parliament recently that annual losses amounted to 30 tonnes of gold, four million tonnes of coal, 2,800 carats of diamonds and 3,600 tonnes of tin concentrate. Even without tax and royalties, the export value is more than $150 million.
Government officials are frank about the problem. They acknowledge that miners are being funded or backed by local and regional financiers, military officials, bureaucrats and other powerful interests--and supported by a network of international buyers. (cont)
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